Domestic Violence Is Not Funny MTV

One of the “joys” of globalization is the spread of technology and cultural ideas. MTV recently launched a Ukrainian version. Even though I grew up in the age of Much Music, (MTV Cannuck equivalent) I never found myself particularly driven to it. The same cannot be said of the young kids growing today as they are all in some way digitized. When my 7 year old asked for a Nintendo DS, and I had to ask what it was. At any rate, my point is that since so many people are using technology for various purposes we should be mindful of the messages that it is sending.

The media is an agent of socialization and as such has the ability to frame discourse. This kind of power should never be taken lightly. When MTV launched its Ukrainian version it had the opportunity to choose what kind of message that it transmitted to the public. Instead of going for something life affirming and hey maybe even a little pro woman it decided to pose the question of whether or not it is okay to hit girls. Seriously WTF. No asshat, hitting women never was, and never will be cool. In fact even asking the question posits that violence against women is acceptable. In a country with a high domestic violence rate this is only reaffirming the supposed right of men to beat women. The question posed this way normalizes violence against women.

So now that you know what MTV sought to get away with, what do you do with this information? Well this is what you do, you call MTV headquarters at 212-258-8000. or you email [at] mtv [dot] ua, and you tell them in no uncertain terms that turning violence against women into some sort of casual occurrence is not acceptable, no matter what country they do it in.